2. Legal and ethical issues
Legal issues are huge problems in the radio industry, however there a
rules for people to follow to stop these from being broke. These are set
out by companies such as Ofcom which radio stations have to follow
really carefully. Even though sometimes radio presenters can joke
around and not breach any laws they can still be ethical issues, his is
where something is wrong/frowned upon but it isn't actually illegal. an
incident occurred within the radio network, when two Australian DJ's
rang up a hospital pretending to be Prince Phillip and asking how Kate
Middleton's baby was. The women who answered the phone began to
give the DJ's the information about Kate not realising that the phone
conversation was being broadcasted on air to thousands of people. The
lady did not know this was a prank and therefore when she found out
that she had breached about Kate Middleton to random people, ended
it by committing suicide.
3. Legal and ethical issues
The prank that was carried out by these two Australian DJ's wasn’t
considered as illegal due to the fact they didn't break any rules.
Also the radio DJ's didn't intend for anyone to kill themselves, and
thought the prank was a harmless joke.
In my opinion I think that the DJ's should be punished for what they did
due to the fact that they shouldn't of invaded the Royals privacy
because they knew that the royal family could be hurt because of
this. They knew that their actions would end up in someone getting hurt
or upset and therefore they should of thought about their actions before
they carried them out.
4. Radio Producers
Radio producers have a tough job due to them having to make sue tat
the show they are developing doesn’t have ay legal problems with it as
well as there being no ethical problems. They have to include jokes to
make the show actually entertaining but have to be careful on how far
to take things before people begin to get seriously offended. They have
manage the show and the content so when they are doing this they
have to look at everything such as ethnicity, religion etc.
5. Aleks Dykes
Aleks Dykes was a BBC radio presenter when during a show he made
a comment about beast feeding, this was “breastfeeding was OK in the
Stone Age when we knew no better…a public area is not the place for it
and fellas don’t like it”. This caused a large stir with people who were
listening when he said this. He also stated that “Yummy mummies”
wouldn’t breastfeed in public due to he being image conscious. Aleks
was reported to Ofcom and there was 11,000 signatures for him to be
removed off the air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmK-vlqm3-8
6. Ofcom Broadcasting Code
I think at Alexs comments were against Ofcoms broadcasting code.
The main rules that I believe this situation relates too is the offensive
language section. It states about offensive language on radio, in
particular in relation to speed and comedy content. This is exactly what
Alex did wen he was speaking about “yummy mummies”. So this
means that he violated the Ofcom broadcasting code leaving the BBC
no choice but to suspend him.
7. Would you class the issue around Dyke’s comments as an
emerging social concerns and expectations? What other
emerging social concerns and expectations are there?
As a social concern I personally do not believe that his comments are
not of the greatest concern as it isn't really that dramatic. However as a
wider issue many people were upset about his comments as they were
offended by them so it is a social issue for those involved. For example,
parents may have social concern that violence in the media might
influence their children. Such as video games, movies TV shows and
etc. there are many other social concerns such as child labour that is
happening in countries all over the world. However these are just some
of the social concerns currently going on within the world.
